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Miscellaneous

1,883,000,000

That, apparently, is the number of blood cells that the Cord Blood Registry was able to capture from our young master’s U-cord. (The idea is that the stem cells in that blood can be used later in life if medical needs arise.) Apparently the registry was hoping for at least 100M cells but was able to store nearly 2 *billion*. Now, for all I know 2 billion is nothing, or maybe they always give parents these stats so that it sounds like your kid is a real champ (for all I know, they could tell me that his fan belt needs to be replaced and I’d probably buy it). Even so, it’s music to his new parents’ ears.

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Photos

Mo’ Finnpix

Quote o’ the Day: "Is it possible to have a ‘Trophy Baby’?"  — proud Mama M. 🙂

I’m honestly trying not to overload the world with shots of this little character but, well, who am I kidding?  Here are some recent snaps:

More to come!

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Photos

Finn = Alfred Hitchcock

You be the judge:
finn_as_hitchcock.jpg
🙂

Categories
Miscellaneous

Songs in the Key of F

As probably everyone knows by now, babies can hear their parents’ voices in utero, and it’s possible that playing music for bambinos stimulates their development.  Not wanting The Artist Soon To Be Known as Finn to hear only his mom’s voice, and having learned that babies respond more to high-pitched sounds, I decided to “serenade” Margot’s belly with the falsetto tones of Neil Young’s Vampire Blues.  Instead of singing “Oh I’m a vampire, baby, suckin’ blood from the earth,” I changed it to “Oh I’m a Vampire Baby, suckin’ juice from my mom…”  This seemed to go over pretty well, earning a few kicks in my general direction. 🙂

Other Finn-themed faves:

  • Devendra Banhart “Michigan State” — which I relentlessly turn into “Finnegan State”
  • Coldplay “Yellow” — but not anymore (adios, jaundice)
  • Traditional “Finnegan’s Wake” — totally incomprehensible, but high-spirited good times.  (We won’t actually keep a bucket of whiskey by dear Finnegan’s head.)
  • The Who “Finnball Wizard” — got such a supple lip.
Categories
Miscellaneous

Visions of Michael Scrima

Some years ago Brent Spiner, the actor who played Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation, released an album called "Ol’ Yellow Eyes Is Back."  I’ve thought of it several times over the last few days, as Finn’s peepers (and skin) have had a decidedly yellowish hue.  It’s pretty common for babies to have a little jaundice as their bodies learn to process bilirubin (which sounds like the name of someone’s accountant, but isn’t).  Fortunately Finn seems well on his way to working it out of his system, and he’s pinking up nicely.

The whole thing made me think of a cautionary character from my mom’s family’s past.  My mom and her sisters (and subsequently the next generation of us kids) were always told, "Don’t drink coffee, or you’ll end up yellow like Michael Scrima!"  Kids love hearing about this magical power of their parents’ drink, not to mention getting to say "Screee-ma."  Poor Michael; who knows what happened to him, or why he was yellow, or whether he even was yellow at all.  He’s probably at a Starbucks somewhere right now, enjoying some Grande Vente caffine bomb and wondering why his yellow ears are burning. 😉

Categories
Miscellaneous

Word of the Day: Hibernaculum

Hibernaculum \hy-ber-NAK-yuh-lum\ noun

  1. From Merriam-Webster: A shelter occupied during the winter by a dormant animal (as an insect or reptile)
  2. From the San Jose delegation: Camp Finnegan, a room occupied by three often very sleepy Nacks

Maybe I’ll write to the dictionary folks and suggest that they add a "K" to the spelling. 🙂

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Photos

Hello, World!

Hello, everyone! Margot and I are just beyond elated that our little Finnmaster General has arrived. 🙂 We thought we’d start this little blog to chronicle some of the goings-on of the little guy and our thoughts about the whole experience. (Hey, dad’s got to have *something* to do while up at 3am, and maybe this way we’ll bore fewer of our friends with in-person stories of BMs, spit-ups, and the like. :-))
To get things started, let me point you to a few photo galleries we’ve posted:

We’ll no doubt be burning up the camera in the days, weeks, and months ahead, so we’ve set up a Photos category on this blog. You’ll be able to find the latest and greatest sets of pix by pointing your browser to http://www.jnack.com/finnegan/photos/.
Love,
Team JMF